A US Airways plane has crashed into the Hudson River in New York after apparently being hit by a bird.

All of the 148 passengers, two pilots and three cabin staff on board the Airbus A320 aircraft survived, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

New York's Fire Department said 78 people were injured.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the US Airways Flight 1549 had just taken off from New York's LaGuardia airport enroute to Charlotte, North Carolina, when the crash occurred in the river near 48th Street in Manhattan.

"The flight took off at 3.26 eastern time. We believe it was airborne for three minutes after take-off when it crashed into the Hudson River. The reports of bird strikes come from eyewitnesses on the ground," said Brown.

A US government official said the plane had been involved in a bird strike that disabled both of the aircraft's engines. It is not thought to be a terrorist-related crash.

"There is no information at this time to indicate that this is a security-related incident," Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner said. "We continue to closely monitor the situation which at present is focused on search and rescue."

Survivors waited patiently on the wings of the plane until they were picked up by the ferries and pleasurecraft scrambled to rescue them.

Jeff Kolodjay, a passenger on the plane, told the Guardian that trouble began within minutes of take off from LaGuardia. "About three minutes into the flight, the left engine blew just in front of where I was sitting."

He continued: "There was a lot of fire coming out and we dropped 100 feet or so very quickly."

Kolodjay said the pilot warned passengers to prepare themselves for impact: "The pilot said, 'you guys have got to brace for impact.'"

Kolodjay said the aircraft hit the water "pretty hard". Within minutes he said he was up to his knees in water while still inside the plane.

"The water just flooded into the plane quickly. A couple of windows broke," said Kolodjay, 31, from Connecticut.

He said several passengers appeared to have been injured, although rescue craft were on the scene within minutes.

"Kudos to the pilot, he did a hell of a job, he saved my life," said Kolodjay.Milling around on the West Side Highway eye witnesses described seeing passengers perched on the wings of the plane shortly after it hit the water.

"I just thought, 'Why is it so low?' And, splash, it hit the water," said witness Barbara Sambriski, a researcher at Associated Press.

The plane was submerged in the -6C waters up to the windows, and rescue crews had opened the door and were pulling passengers in yellow life vests from the plane. Several boats surrounded the plane, which appeared to be slowly sinking.

"I saw what appeared to be a tail fin of a plane sticking out of the water," said Erica Schietinger, whose office windows at Chelsea Piers look out over the Hudson.

A passenger told CNN: "I was standing on the left wing for a little while. I hope none of us ever have to experience it again. I think everyone got out of the plane. I think everyone survived and that's miraculous."

An eyewitness told the BBC: "It made a pretty big splash when it landed on the water. I just hope everybody's OK."

Aviation expert James Ferguson said he had never seen anything like it. "If you hit water fairly hard, as you will do with an aircraft, it tends to break up. But this aircraft seems to be virtually undamaged," he said.

Former BA pilot Eric Moody told Sky News the plane's pilot had performed a "textbook ditching".

He said: "That very rarely happens, unless you are near a runway. Whoever has flown that has done a really good job."

Air incident investigator David Gleave told the BBC the incident was "quite remarkable but not unique". He said that if both engines of the plane had failed, the aircraft would become like a "glider". He said: "It is quite controllable."

Large numbers of passengers wearing yellow life jackets were seen being pulled from the water and taken on board ferries.

Some, who had been standing on the plane's fuselage, were not even wet when they were rescued.

• The US Airways information line can be contacted on 001 800 6798215.